With various blog-related expenses looming, annual renewals of this and that, I’m going to do something reckless and appeal to your better nature.

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Sordid business, I grant you, but it’s what keeps this place here.

For newcomers wishing to know more about what’s been going on here for nigh on twenty years, in over 3,600 posts and hundreds of thousands of comments, the Reheated series is a pretty good place to start – in particular, the end-of-year-summaries, which convey the fullest flavour of what it is we do. A sort of blog concentrate. If you like what you find there… well, there’s lots more of that.

Do take a moment to poke through the discussion threads too. The posts are intended as starting points, not full stops, and the comments are where much of the good stuff is waiting to be found. And do please join in.

As always, thanks for the support, the comments, and the company.

Consider this an open thread. Share ye links and bicker.

Not entirely sure what’s happening here. (h/t, Dicentra) || You want one and you know it. || Situational awareness. || Spear protocol. || Pressure suit, 1934. || For all your vaporising needs. || On progressive out-group bias. || It’s a job. || You’ll want one of these buggers, too. || And she can bend it backwards. || His is bigger. || Battle of the sexes, or “windmilling fat birds.” || The Bashinator 9000. || On the coming of decimal currency, 1970. || A ruler was used. || Regurgitation of note. || Incoming. || Traffic camera tunes, a live entertainment of sorts. || “Now that it’s inserted, we are ready for a conversation.” || How to make an origami typewriter. || Oral Care for the Mentally Retarded, 1966. || Film poster restoration. || The glamour of flight. || Place in food chain negotiation. || A project for the weekend.

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Lifted from the comments, this caught my eye:

It’s obviously not about the three dollars and understanding this is a prerequisite for building civilization https://t.co/zzDNdmJ0Rw

— wanye (@xwanyex) September 15, 2026

Turns out you can always find a self-styled communist to defend antisocial behaviour, in this case, repeated, somewhat triumphant fare-dodging.

The chap doing the fare-dodging, since you ask, is a fashion designer who likes to pose with expensive cars, and whose fashion shoots have employed a fare-dodging motif.

Because fashion is so inspirational, you see. A force for our collective betterment.

As one might imagine, our proud communist is experiencing some pushback in his replies, generally from people who actually pay for the services they use, thereby helping to ensure said services remain in existence.

Among the many replies, the not inapt notion that if $3 is too trivial a sum to warrant an arrest or any kind of enforcement, it is also a trivial sum over which to risk being arrested.

And if you’re willing to commit a crime for $3, needlessly, for amusement, that tells us something.

As one chap puts it,

Indeed. Fare-dodging is rarely a crime of desperation. It is more typically a display of contempt. For the likes of thee and me.

And as others note in the replies, people who commit more serious crimes on public transport tend to be fare-dodgers. Enforcing punishment of the smaller crime can have quite dramatic secondary effects:

Keeping fare evaders out of the subway by any means necessary has huge ancillary benefits. https://t.co/rhgBXCBs4r

— Harry Heymann 🥑 (@harryh) September 15, 2026

Needless to say, our proud communist is responding to his critics with all of the mental elegance one would expect:

The subject of fare-dodging – and the assumptions of its devotees – has cropped up here before.

Including claims of supposedly altruistic fare-dodging, whereby stiffing others with the bill, the cost of you getting from A to B, because you can’t be arsed, is somehow the very measure of politeness. Of being a caring and progressive person.

A freeloading world, in which abusing the trust of others is hailed as “the best way to live” and a basis for applause, and whose practitioners pretend a virtue, a moral sophistication, that seemingly has little to do with how they actually behave.

And likewise, the progressive annoyance at those who dare to notice the phenomenon at all. A weirdly uniform contrivance, with lecturers, lawyers and “Oscar-nominated” screenwriters expressing their “exhausted rage” – not at the criminal activity occurring right in front of them, every day, and with ever-greater boldness – but at those who mention it, even in the mildest terms.

Because some things bear repeating, a few items from the archives:

An Experiment Is Conducted.

When you really want your child to grow up anomalous and interesting.

Verboten Realities.

On Professor Amy Wax and saying the unsayable.

Gorging On Grievance.

From Inside Higher Ed, some weighty convolutions.

The Violation Of Others.

Modish Manhattan school offers courses on how to steal.

For those craving more, this is a pretty good place to start.

Consider this an open thread. Share ye links and bicker.

At last, lollipops that play rap music through your teeth. || At least it does that. || Coin-operated elevators. || Competitive window tinting. || I guess we’ll never know. || While you’re at it, mate. || “My WiFi cuts out when I experience powerful emotions.” || Today’s word is parenting. || Place in food chain negotiation. || For reasons not entirely clear, people with low sex drive demand visibility. || A head of the sexuals. || How to get shot. || Working in a “self-service” shop, 1961. || I’m afraid the unsee button is out of order. || And lo, a mighty roar. || Enjoying the moment. || Brief intermission. || It’s a take. || At last, your very own Star Trek casserole dish and matching communi-grater. || Facial. || How to make fire. || The making of Flash Gordon, 1980. || And finally, scenes of interspecies fondling.

To enable extra commenting options – including @username mentions, comment editing, upvotes, custom avatars, and live notifications – scroll down to the black ‘Meta’ box at the very bottom of the page and click register. It’s free and quite painless.

For additional rumblings, follow me on X.